Complaining

I have sat in on several tax season debriefs, some with only partners and some with team members with the partners. No matter how I position negative observations as unhelpful and we are looking for suggestions to improve there is still a fair amount of complaining.

Complaining is unhelpful and draining.

So what can do we do to reduce the amount of complaining?

Well, let me start with another observation. I am surprised by the amount of complaining from partners I hear about other partners, team members and clients in front of others. Shockingly, I will even hear partners emulate “whiny” clients in front of team members! Come on people! What in the world can be a positive outcome from a partner imitating a client in a negative fashion?

If you are a partner and have a need to complain hire a coach or a therapist (note your spouse shouldn’t be the recipient of your complaints).

So where to start…. Partners STOP complaining. It’s unprofessional and unhelpful. The next step is to try to ban complaining in your firm and ask people to be solutions oriented. If you have clients or team members that you are complaining about all the time it certainly begs the question, “Why do you have them?”